3 June 2002

The date is September 20, 1945. The setting is Chungking, China, where General A. C. Wedemeyer is hosting a dinner for eleven American soldiers just released from a Japanese prison camp. Years later, General Wedemeyer reported what happened that evening after he had offered a toast, to his honored guests.

General “Skinny Wainwright, tall and gaunt, arose unsteadily to respond in behalf of his comrades.  He pulled from his shirt pocket a wrinkled piece of paper.  There was silence. Clearing his throat, the old general read slowly.  “Not for fame or reward, not for place or for rank, not goaded by necessity, nor lured by ambition, my men suffered all, sacrificed all, dared all, and many died.  A glorious victory was won, and we thank God and you for our freedom tonight. From a 4/28/83 speech to the China, Burma, India Veterans Association

This sense of patriotic duty, so powerfully phrased by the general, was shared by most of America’s troops in World War II.  That generation grew up in a time when the school day began with the pledge of allegiance and often a patriotic song, and all the children studied the history of the United States and learned about the lives and judgments of the remarkable men who forged the American government.  James Russell Lowell, the American poet and diplomat, was once asked by the French historian, Francois Guizot, how long the American Republic would endure?  “As long”, said Lowell, “as the ideas of the men who founded it remain dominant.”

In most other nations, the people’s devotion to the homeland is inspired by a rich mix of cultural features uniquely their own—distinctive language, cuisine, beverages and clothing, folk heroes, literary, artistic and musical giants from centuries past, and architectural wonders known to every child—a mosaic of national treasures.  American patriotism is altogether different. Consider for instance, the fairly recent admission to the Union of Hawaii and Alaska.  These two territories, culturally, were remarkably different from each other and from the forty-eight states, and yet both were instantly accepted as full and equal partners.  This welcoming embrace of peoples of a dissimilar heritage is an extraordinary occurrence, and reflects the particular nature of our national origin.

The creation of The United States of America shattered existing concepts of political institutions.  In a speech at Colonial Williamsburg, the British author, Barbara Ward, said, “The men who legislated here nearly two centuries ago…with breath-taking audacity stood up in this little room and dared to legislate for mankind.  For—make no mistake—that is what they were doing.  They do not say, ‘we Virginians’, they do not say, ‘we Americans,’ they say ‘all men.’ ‘All men are free and independent,’ ‘all have certain rights,’ ‘government ought to be constituted for the common benefit, protection and security of the people.’ ”  Although she was referring to the Virginia Declaration of Rights adopted in June 1776, these concepts were principles enshrined in The Declaration of Independence a month later.

The Founding Fathers not only knew from their own experience how precious liberty is to the human being, but they also knew that it was at least as difficult to sustain liberty as it was to achieve it.

In his Inaugural Address, George Washington dwelt primarily on what he believed to be of the greatest importance to the new government, the character of the people and of their elected officials.  “Rectitude and patriotism” he saw as the surest guarantees that conflicting interests would not destroy the fledgling republic.  “The foundation of national policy,” he said, must be “the pure and immutable principles of private morality.”

These principles include, lawfulness, truthfulness, civility, manners, kindness, respect for the other person’s rights and sensitivities, loyalty, marital fidelity, integrity, earning ones own way, and many more, above all, a willingness to use social pressures to encourage other people to abide by the informal rules.

As long as such civilized codes of behavior are generally observed, the people can live together amicably and productively.  When the informal rules break down, trouble follows.  When large numbers of citizens revert to the savage inclinations to cheat and lie and steal and vandalize, and in other ways take advantage of their neighbors, then the government is called on to pass more and more laws, and hire more police, and build more prisons, and the free society, no longer virtuous, turns itself into a tyranny as the laws and penalties keep multiplying.

The ideas of the Founders that James Russell Lowell believed to be the essential foundation of our free society have not been kept alive in the public consciousness over the last half-century.  General Wainwright’s troops clearly understood the obligations which free citizens must accept, and the sacrifices which free citizens must make.  Somehow, in the years since that time, America has failed to introduce new generations to their cultural heritage.  The task now is to help all Americans understand why honorable conduct in all aspects of life and sacrificing for the general well-being are the marks of a true American patriot, and are the best guarantees of their liberty.